American Gods: EPs Preview Upcoming Starz TV series

by Jessica Pena, July 29, 2016

What can you expect from American Gods? At Comic-Con, executive producers Michael Green and Bryan Fuller previewed the upcoming Starz series, Deadline reports.

Based on the Neil Gaiman novel, the drama takes place in a world where old and new gods really exist. The cast includes Ian McShane, Emily Browning, Yetide Badaki, Bruce Langley, Crispin Glover, Gillian Anderson, Kristin Chenoweth, Dane Cook, and Peter Stormare.

During the show’s Comic-Con panel, Fuller said the series will stir discusses of religion:

One of the things that has been very rewarding for me in the experience has been just the partnership with Michael and being able to go into this well-loved book and come at it from two different perspectives of religious experience: Michael being raised Jewish, myself being raised Catholic, and both of us having a fondness for those religions and a curiosity about what constitutes those religions. It feels like this book is a great opportunity for both of us to have conversations about faith and our roles in the universe in a way that is every bit as fun as the stories that we grew up loving in science fiction and fantasy.”

He added that the Starz series will expand upon the book:

Michael, and myself, and Neil feel that this show is an opportunity to accordion out some of those stories and some of those issues, so at the end of the show’s run, you will look at the book as the Reader’s Digest version of the story.

In the original discussion when we were breaking out the arc of the show, we thought what was originally going to be the ending was actually going to be around Episode 5. Then we just thought, let’s just slow this way down, and at the encouragement of the network, who have been incredibly supportive of what we want to do with the show, and their note, essentially, was slow down. We want this to last a while.”

Fuller also mentioned that Technical Boy will look different from the book’s original character:

I think, primarily, you would see the update in the Technical Boy character. The book came out in 2001, and there was the fetishization of The Matrixat the time. So the Technical Boy in the novel who was overweight and sort of a stereotypical, almost comic book guy style, you know, “nerd,” and we’ve taken the Technical Boy into a much more fashion-forward and aesthetically driven arena so that we can take part in all of the advances that are happening in fashion with different fabrics and styles that are reflective of what’s also happening, you know, beneath the surface of our keyboards.”